W
L
SUMMER LOVIN'
BY PAUL ASKEW, CHEF PATRON OF
THE ART SCHOOL RESTAURANT
We have had some of the most incredible experiences in recent weeks
at the restaurant and out and about across the region. The team and I
had the pleasure in temporarily relocating The Arts School Restaurant
and The Art School Cellars to the resplendent surroundings of the
Metropolitan Cathedral to create two banquets on consecutive
evenings. It’s always something of a logistical challenge setting up
field kitchens in large cathedrals but thanks to a lot of hard work and
a dedicated team I’m pleased to report all went well.
Hot on the heels of our cathedral adventures, I’ve found myself
back on demonstration stage of late, most recently at the inaugural
“Manchester Eats” festival at Heaton Park. Hosting the chef
demonstrations, it was a real pleasure to work with Marco Pierre
White, Ed Baines, Matt Tebbutt, Andy Reid and Mary-Ellen McTague
across the weekend. It’s always good to meet some of the leading chefs
and who knows maybe one or two will come and cook with me in
the future!
I was delighted to take to the stage at the Shrewsbury Food and Drink
festival, fulfilling a long-time promise to Andy Richardson, one of
the driving forces behind my debut book “Onwards and Upwards”. I
enjoyed cooking one of the fish recipes from the book – as it seems
many people have given the number of emails and tweets I’ve received
since its launch.
As well as featuring forty recipes from The Art School it also has
a section on my food heroes including our friends at Ward’s, the
Buckmaster brothers, who have excelled in recent weeks even by
their own very high standards as they’ve supplied us with some of
the most outstanding fish of late. We’ve had a run of some of the best
36 wirrallife.com
and biggest Turbot I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with, some
wonderful wild Sea Trout from Eyemouth and a flush of Liverpool
Bay Seabass.
The beauty of having such a good supplier is that it enables the team
and I to develop our market fish of the day dish on our Excellence
menus on a regular basis, always ensuring we have the very best
ingredients to work with. As many regular guests of the restaurant
will know I’m a great fan of fayre from the sea and enjoy developing
new fish dishes with the team to make
It’s not only the restaurant menu we’ve been working on we’ve also
been working hard on The Art School Cellars food offering too. The
cheese and Charcuterie platters with homemade breads have been a
successful staple since we opened the bar in Autumn 2017, in August,
on our return from our weeks’ holiday